Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, has been working to eliminate what it considers redundant positions and cut costs. With roughly 200,000 federal workers now out of jobs, many are scrambling to find new employment. But for those who worked for agencies like the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, or Fish and Wildlife Service, job opportunities outside of government are slim.
Coloradan Tina Jackson's one-year probationary period as a federal employee was set to end on March 10. But three weeks ago, she was let go from the Fish and Wildlife Service team she headed. After 30 years of working in government, she's now grappling with what's next for her career and the conservation efforts she was a part of.
Jackson knows just about everything about black-footed ferrets.
"They're a really important little creature in that they depend on prairie dogs. They live in prairie dog burrows and eat mostly prairie dogs. Over 90% of their diet is prairie dogs. So by protecting the ferrets, we're also protecting the prairie dog colonies and the other 100-plus species that depend on prairie dogs. It's a really neat little animal, and there's so many things just to love about them," said Jackson.
Recovery of the endangered species, which were once believed to be extinct, isn't just her passion but her life's work.
"They are one of those species that's on the brink of extinction. And the work that I and so many others do is keeping them from blinking out," said Jackson. "We don't want to let them go. We want to make sure that they're still here for future generations to experience."
After nearly 30 years of working to protect the animals with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Jackson became the black-footed ferret recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in March of last year.
"I love working with wildlife, and I really enjoy working with those, those kind of underdog species," said Jackson.
But in February, she and two other probationary employees on her 11-person team were let go as part of the DOGE federal workforce cuts aimed at increasing government efficiency and cutting costs.
"It was a very upsetting day. I mean, I've worked in government for, you know, close to 30 years, and it's the first time I've ever had something like that happen," said Jackson. "I thought I was doing a good job. I knew my two employees were doing a spectacular job."
Jackson is now dealing with the loss of income and health insurance for her family and wondering what's next for her career.
"This sort of work, like the work that happens at the Fish and Wildlife Service, there isn't really a private sector field that's comparable. It's government work. And so many of the people I know, so many of the people I work with, that's where we've spent our career and where we've wanted to spend our career working for the American public to preserve these resources," said Jackson.
Jackson feels for other fired federal workers and is concerned about the impact of their loss on federal programs and grants.
"Government is never really fully staffed, never overstaffed. And so to make these cuts, it's going to be felt," said Jackson.
In her former team's ferret center, about two-thirds of the world's black-footed ferret population lives in captivity. In the next week or two, their breeding season will begin, a pivotal time for the near-extinct species.
"That's a time period where we need kind of all hands on deck. And so to be down two employees in that team is really tough. The work that I did was a lot of coordination with partners, and so it just raises a lot of questions with, you know, how much of that coordination is going to continue to happen? Partners are so important for that program," said Jackson.
She worries for the future of a species she's dedicated her life to.
"In the wildlife conservation world, none of the programs that I have ever heard about or been involved with are working with a lot of extra, a lot of fat on the bones that can get cut. And so we're making do with what we can get. And to have a cut like this to the program is pretty significant," said Jackson. "This is a species that we thought was gone twice. We did not know of any in the wild or in captivity, and we now sit at about 300 in captivity and an estimated 500 in the wild. So this is not a species that can take big cuts or can withstand multiple years of no breeding in captivity. So it's a species we could lose."
Jackson also worries for her two young employees who were let go with her and the students who are studying these fields in school right now. She's not sure what their careers will look like and who is going to carry on the work she's spent decades on.